England player 'stayed awake' for 24 hours at the World Cup to see how well he trained

An England goalkeeper once stayed awake for 24 hours at a World Cup to see how he performed in training the next day.

During World Cups, players are often in a country they've never visited and separated from their families for a sustained period.

It's all in an attempt to reach the pinnacle of world football. Sometimes, boredom does creep in.

That was most evident in 2010 when a member of England's squad in South Africa pushed the boat out.

Emile Heskey was part of the Three Lions team that were knocked out by Germany in the round of 16.

In that squad was David James, who became the oldest player to ever debut in a World Cup at 39-years-old despite being at three previous tournaments.

James came into the squad after Rob Green made a costly error against the USMNT in England's opening group game.

In fear of potentially having a bad night's sleep ahead of a key game, Heskey has claimed James stayed up for a full day to measure his performance.

He told William Hill: "When you got to major tournaments, you are away for 6-8 weeks at times.

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"And imagine being in a little section of a hotel for that time, you have your arcade machines which is great, but that is kind of it.

"Players can go a bit crazy. It was the 2002 World Cup. He [James] decided to stay awake for 24 hours to see how he trained.

"He stayed awake through the whole day until the next morning to see how he trained.

"I asked why are you doing that? He said, 'just in case I have a bad sleep'. I asked, 'why would you have a bad sleep?'

and he said, 'you never know'. I think he was losing it a bit. He did it for fun, basically!"

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James played 53 times for England in total. He retired shortly after the tournament ended.

England are currently in the quarter-finals of the World Cup with a huge clash against France coming up on Saturday.

France are the reigning world champions and comfortably defeated Poland 3-1 in the round of 16.

Victory will see them face either Portugal or Morocco in the semi-finals.